So much for the perfect season.
After two consecutive wins to open the season and an undefeated preseason, the Prince George Spruce Kings got their first taste of defeat Saturday when the Victoria Salsa handed them a 4-3 loss.
The Salsa scored three goals in a five-minute span in the second period to take a two-goal lead that proved insurmountable for the Kings.
“We took a couple shifts off in the second and they got a couple goals and that kind of got us down,” said Kings third-year winger Jeff Martens.
“The first period we went hard and finished strong in the third, we just took the second period off and got three goals against and that was the game right there. We got lots of shots but their D-men were boxing us out good and we weren’t getting those rebounds.”
Adam Naglich notched the winner at 13:17 of the second, a chip shot that hit a stick before it landed in the net behind Kings rookie goalie Brandon Highton.
Unlike the previous week in Vernon, Highton, a 17-year-old from Kitimat, wasn’t at his best Saturday. His first mistake came late in the first period when he failed to cover the inside post and Jeff Oddleifson banged home a wraparound try.
Tyler Scofield made it 2-1 Kings early in the second on a power play when he broke in on an odd-man rush with Aaron Hareuther and Amedee Marshall, one of the most dangerous Kings all night. Scofield finished the play off with a beautiful goalmouth deke on Ben McMullin to score backhanded. But 17 seconds later, Josh Jacek-Jepson picked the corner on Highton. Kyle Greentree followed up shortly after with his first goal of the season when Highton went down too early on the shot and left a big space open over his right shoulder.
The Kings dominated the third, outshooting the Salsa 14-5, but Chris Stevens was the only shooter to find success when he jammed home a rebound early in the period.
The Kings wasted a two-man advantage in the second period when they tried to get too fancy looking for the perfect setup.
“They’re just young kids and it’s really hard to get it through their minds that they have to play 60 minutes,” said Kings head coach Eddie Johnstone. “We quit skating, and against a club like that, they can just take it away, and they did. There’s absolutely no excuse for taking a period off. We got outworked in the second period and I just won’t let that happen.”
The game marked the return of former Kings centre Matt Kerr, who ended up in Victoria after a four-way deal that also involved Williams Lake and Powell River. The Kings acquired Bryan Harris in the off-season trade, but Harris opted to play in the WHL.
The 18-year-old Kerr played a regular shift until the 4:25 mark of the second, when he was tossed for checking Matt Fleger from behind.
“It would have been nice to stick around but the boys got a big win and that’s all that matters,” Kerr said.
Kings rookie Brad Herman suffered the same fate as Kerr when he was tossed midway through the first period, right after he scored his first BCHL goal on the Kings’ first power play chance.
McMullin faced 45 shots, while Highton had 35 directed his way.
The Salsa opened their season Friday with an overtime loss to the Timberwolves in Williams Lake, and capped the weekend by knocking off the Quesnel Millionaires 4-2 on Sunday.
Salsa general manager Pete Zubersky, filling in for head coach Rob Milliken, who was unable to make the trip, was thankful his team was able to stave off the Kings after blowing a big lead the previous night.
“We were up 5-2 in Williams Lake and instead of doing the little things to get the win we got selfish as a club and lost 6-5 in overtime, so we tried to play a tighter game (Saturday),” Zubersky said. “Other than the power plays we controlled them nicely five-on-five.”
The Kings will have a week to think about what went wrong before Saturday’s game at the Coliseum against the Vernon Vipers.
